MIKE BRADWELL
Toronto Argonauts Wide Receiver

In a three-part series, Mike describes the ups and downs of his first season of professional football in Toronto in “Road to the CFL”.

For the first game of the season, it was back to Hamilton for another game against the Ticats. I had 36 ticket requests from family and many friends from McMaster for my first professional game which didn’t help with pre-game jitters! Due to an injury to Andre Talbot the previous game, I was able to come into the game in 5 receiver sets.

On the shoulders of running back Jamal Robertson, we rallied for a 30-17 victory and I had 2 receptions for 39 yards. The next week was a date with Saskatchewan for my first professional home game. Our offence picked up where we left off scoring on our first drive however turnovers and special teams errors lead to a big 46-36 loss. In the dying seconds of the game, I was able to haul in a touchdown pass from Kerry Joseph.

The game was already out of reach but being able to score my first professional touchdown as an Argonaut in front of my family and friends is something I will never forget, not to mention it was on my 23rd birthday. Over the next few weeks, our team faced much adversity and were 2-7 at mid season. Due to an overwhelming number of injuries to our non-import receivers, I was relied on to start every game and experienced many ups and downs. Overall, I felt I was improving as the season progressed but we desperately needed to start winning in order to make the playoffs.

The second half of the season began with an exciting overtime win at home against Hamilton and it felt great to give our loyal fans something to cheer about. The rest of the season was quite frustrating as despite our best efforts, we were unable to garner a victory. Having to watch the playoffs from home was extremely disappointing and is not the way I envisioned our season ending.  This will motivate me to train even harder in the off-season. I want to thank all the fans of the Toronto Argonauts for their undying support through this tough time. More than anything, I look forward helping this team get back our winning ways and hopefully a Grey Cup victory in 2010.